Faith
by Battle-Brother98
Summary: A lone Space Marine faces a physical and mental conflict while fighting Chaos forces in a rearguard action. One-shot. T for violence


Faith

Andrus's ears were ringing when he woke. Pain seeped into every fibre of his body, despite auto-stimulants flooding his system to fight it. The explosion from the missile launcher had torn a hole in the side of the Predator, now a smoking ruin. He checked his helmet's heads-up-display, only to see a series of red icons glaring at him. The rest of his squad was dead.

He rolled onto his front, and struggled to his feet. He saw warning runes declaring there were multiple ruptures in his power armour, several cracked and broken bones and two serious punctures in his abdomen. The sounds of battle returned to him, as did his Captain's orders. Hold the hill. Give the civilians time to evacuate.

The vox channel was flooded with incoherent screams of the enemy, jamming their comms. Hate flowed into Andrus. His squad was dead. His brothers. They would pay for that. He rose unsteadily to his feet, seeing the broken corpse of Hendrox lying to his right, his black and white power armour marred by the mud and the blood. They'd grown up together, boys in the same tribe. Now his brains seeped out of the crater that used to be his helmet.

He heard a voice in his head, soft and soothing. Give up, it whispered, let us pass.

The screaming was not just the vox. A human warrior, lean and pale, was rushing towards him, shrieking obscene worship to the Blood God, a wickedly curved blade in his hand. Andrus rose rapidly, launching his armoured fist forward. It connected with the heretic's head with a sickening crack, smashing the top half of his head off. The heretic fell wordlessly to the ground, as Andrus burst forward to meet the next attackers. He swung his hand in an arc, striking a second cultist at the neck with an open hand, nearly decapitating him with the force of the blow, before bringing his hand back around to backhand a third to the floor, before stomping onto his head.

The voice spoke again. Join us, it urged, be free of your duty. Andrus ignored it.

He rolled into cover behind a fallen Marine as automatic fire peppered the ground around him. It was Sword-Brother Telvar, his chest ripped apart by the explosion. He had tutored Andrus in the ways of the Chapter since he was an initiate. He reached out and grabbed the veteran's bolt pistol. It was nearly fully loaded, eight shots in the magazine. Andrus sprung out from cover, raising the pistol as he grabbed Telvar's chainsword in his free hand. A Traitor Marine, in gleaming blue and gold armour, was reloading his boltgun, while cultists next to him brought auto-guns to bear.

Andrus fired the pistol, rapid sharp barks giving voice to his fury. The first three rounds slammed into the Traitor Marine's chest, knocking him backwards, while the next two struck cultists, with mass reactive rounds pulverising their bodies. The final two rounds missed, but allowed Andrus to close the distance with the chainsword.

He swung in a wide sideways arc, which bisected the last cultist in the mob still standing, before lunging forwards with a roar to meet the Traitor Marine. The heretic had reloaded and raised his boltgun by this point, and opened fire on fully automatic as Andrus closed. Rounds sparked off his armour, and one clipped his torso, drawing blood. The force of the fire swung him around, and what was meant to be a diagonal swing merely swatted the boltgun away. Andrus spun around as the Traitor Marine closed the gap, swinging the chainsword in a two handed grip. It sparked off the horned helmet of the Traitor Marine, whirring violently as it chipped off teeth of the chainsword, as the force of the impact knocked the heretic onto his back. Andrus went in for the kill, thrusting downwards and through the gorget of the Traitor. Blood and gristle spurted out of the finishing blow, staining Andrus's black armour red.

He yanked the chainsword out of the corpse and sank onto one knee, gasping in pain. His injuries were more serious than he first thought. He removed his helmet with one hand, steadying himself by using the chainsword as a staff with the other. He grimaced, and tasted copper in his mouth. He heard the voice again.

"Why do you still fight, brother?" It asked. Andrus realised it was no longer in his head, and looked up. It was a sorcerer, clad in baroque power armour, a wickedly curved sword in one hand and an ornate bolt pistol in the other. "Your injuries are too severe. You will not survive another battle." The sorcerer stated plainly, taking a step up the hill towards him. "Join us, and you will have the power to fight for eternity."

Andrus rose to his feet, grunting with the effort, scanning the battlefield. He saw at least a dozen more Chaos Marines behind the sorcerer, all with weapons raised. His pistol was empty, so all he had left was his chainsword, which had around half its teeth left. He took in a deep, painful breath.

"No." He answered, remaining motionless. The sorcerer took another step towards him, clearly confused by the answer.

"Why? You can barely stand." He chucked sarcastically. "You have no hope of winning this. Why continue to resist us brother? Your armour is broken, your blade shattered, your ammunition spent. What do you have to resist us with." The sorcerer took another step forward, now within striking distance. The other Chaos Marines were too far away to help, but close enough to charge without taking too much fire. Andrus heard over the sounds of battle a distinctive roar of engines, of the last civilian transport fleeing the planet. He smiled.

"I have faith. That is enough." Andrus revved the chainsword and charged.

 **A/N: So this is my first time posting something on here, so please be constructive in any criticism. Hope you enjoyed this short story and please follow or favourite to get updates on future stuff I put on here. Thanks for reading!**

 **Also I only own the characters I created in this story. Warhammer 40,000 and all races/ armies /etc are owned by Games Workshop (is that enough lawyers? Is that enough for you?! Are you not entertained?!)**

 **Battle-Brother98 out**


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